Assignment: Addressing Global Issues

Students will Develop and research global and local issues and choose one topic to argue for their Essays..

Essay #1: Documented Persuasive Research Paper

Length: 5 pages, double-spaced in MLA format.

Sources: 1 Interview, 2 peer-edited professional journal articles, and at least 3 others (can be anything).

This essay will be one sustained argument in which after you have researched your topic you form an opinion that you must defend throughout the essay. You must reveal the research to your reader that led you to conclude your findings. To maintain a thoughtful, substantiated position on the issue, you must consider other positions that have been taken on that issue. Once you recognize alternate or competing views, you will absorb or concede or refute those arguments.

Consider this final paper your opportunity to demonstrate your ability to use the rhetorical skills you have learned about this semester. How can you best establish your own ethos as the author of this essay? What kinds of emotional appeals will be most persuasive for your audience? What is the most effective order for making your logical arguments? What kinds of exigence can you provide to convince your audience to recognize the seriousness of the issue? You will also want to work on building and utilizing language skills as you have so far in the semester read from other writers and in rhetorical analysis. You must present your argument with coherence and clarity.

Research

To complete this paper, continue your research so that your bibliography contains a minimum of 6 sources (2 scholarly), one interview, and 3 others: including books, articles, editorials, blogs, websites, non-print media (like podcasts), government sources, and anything else. Make sure that your materials are up-to-date and that you select the most persuasive arguments. As you have learned more, your views may be modified, may grow more complex, or may even change entirely. Your final paper must demonstrate the competence in using and citing sources properly and in ways that support your position and purposes.

At this point you will likely find that some sources from your earlier Works Cited pages are no longer useful for your current task. For example, articles that helped you to create an overview for your topic may not assist you in writing your own sharply focused argument. Having become much more familiar with the current debate, you may discover alternative key terms that will present new avenues for research.

Audience and Purpose

Conceptualize your readers as a group that requires convincing, either because they are neutral or because they are opposed to your position (hostile). Arguing with people who disagree with you is the most challenging rhetorical situation, the one requiring the greatest skill from an arguer in selecting, arranging, and phrasing arguments. Though arguments addressed to those who are opposed rarely overturn their convictions, a well-argued case can nevertheless demonstrate to them that a reasonable and moral person can hold a different view. Arguments for a neutral audience have a good chance of influencing and even winning over readers.

Because your choice of arguments, your arrangement of those arguments, and even your wording depends so much on your audience, you will need to identify your intended audience (are they hostile or neutral?) and address Further, specify the publication in which you imagine your argument might be published. You might think about the variety of publications that you used for your research. Your paper might be appropriate as a companion piece to one of the articles you read. Alternatively, it could also be aimed at a specific scholarly audience and therefore appear in a specialized journal. [We will discuss your audience and you will complete an assignment after break in class, so do not stress about this section].

Arrangement Advice

This paper is much longer than the others you have written this semester in order to give you a chance to develop your own arguments in detail, to back them up with the appropriate support, and to respond to other positions. A full argument on a genuine issue where something is at stake deserves care and preparation.

The parts of a full argument will help you develop and organize your argument. You will need to contextualize the debate and let the readers know how you will discuss the issues. The most important decision you have to make is how to distribute the confirmation (arguments for) and refutation (arguments against). Should you refute the opposition first? This is the usual advice when an audience believes the opposing arguments. Or should your positive arguments come first? It is sometimes suggested that, even with hostile audiences, strong arguments boldly framed are more likely to persuade. Or perhaps characterizations of other positions should be mixed with refutation, concession, or bridging. The possibilities are extensive, so planning is necessary.

Problem/Solution

Though not required, the assignment could include a problem/solution component to help strengthen your argument, make it more specific, and focus your attention to a detailed proposal. Think of your essay as trying to solve a problem with a specific solution. Are you arguing about childhood obesity? Arguing that the problem exists may not seem as exigent as offering a possible solution - a specific proposal such as changing the content of school lunches.

Sample Essays

•Co-Ed vs. Single Sex Education (.doc file)
•Drugs Made in India and China (.docx file)
•Reforming Islam is a Must (.doc file)
•Closing the Achievement Gap (.doc file)
•Antipsychotic Medications (.doc file)

Interview Component

Making your own source

One way to help join the academic conversation about your issue and establish your ethos into the debate is to show how informed you are of the topic by interviewing or surveying others who you feel are credible sources. Creating a source is a great way to build your own ethos and become a qualified speaker on the issue. You will incorporate one interview into Essays #1 that is based on an interview with an academic or professional in the field whose voice will help shape the context of the debate.

I would like for you to contact at least one or more qualified academics or professionals on your subject and briefly interview him or her to add to your essay research.

The questions you ask should be open-ended rather than closed to allow for more in-depth answers. However, you can ask closed questions if you feel it will add to the context.

Contact your source early via email, chat, phone, or in person so that you have time to set up the interview/survey and transcribe it. Limit yourself to 5-10 minutes of interview so that you do not have too much material. You do not have to include the interview until the Final Draft, so that gives you several weeks to plan.

Overview

A fully developed argument in academic writing includes many voices and ideas: those of the author, of the researchers consulted, and of those who disagree with the author. In writing such an argument, it is an intelligent rhetorical decision to fully understand the ideas even of those with whom you disagree. There is a tactical reason: understanding the arguments and evidence of the opposition allows you to refute them with assurance or find a compromise. But there is also a different kind of ethical reason: giving consideration to your opponent enriches your own ideas, helps you to fully understand an issue, and shows you to be a thoughtful rhetor.

In fact, Rogerian argumentation does exactly this: You fully appreciate and even integrate another point of view. In this paper, you will take up the ideas and arguments of your opposition in order to develop facility in argument for both of these reasons.

How to proceed

At this point in your research process, you have researched a topic and narrowed down your focus to a single issue within the larger topic. In your ESSAY #1, you will articulate an argument about that specific issue. You will have formulated a cohesive thesis statement that is both plausible and defendable. You will then support those points based on information obtained from your sources. Remember that you are allowing your research to ‘lead' you.